'Disturbing': One in five university students sexually harassed, AHRC report finds

One in five students experience sexual harassment in a university setting while just under two per cent have been sexually assaulted.

Copies of a ten point action plan response to the national student survey on sexual assault and sexual harassment Source: AAP

Just over half of university students have been sexually harassed and seven per cent sexually assaulted on at least one occasion.

The finding is contained in an Australian Human Rights  Commission report based on a national survey of more than 30,000 students attending 39 institutions.

Women experienced sexual assault and harassment at disproportionately higher rates than men.

And men were overwhelmingly the perpetrators of both sexual assault and sexual harassment cases reported by students to the commission.

"A significant proportion of students who were sexually assaulted or sexually harassed knew the perpetrator, who was most likely to be a fellow student from their university," the report said.

"It is clear from the survey that women experience sexual assault and sexual harassment at disproportionately higher rates than men: they were almost twice as likely to be harassed in 2016 and more than three times as likely to be sexually assaulted in 2015 or 2016," the report said.

The findings

• 51 per cent of university students sexually harassed at least once in 2016.
• One in four students was harassed in a university setting (on campus, while travelling to university, at a university-endorsed social event or in university employment).
• One in three harassment incidents happened on university grounds or in classrooms.
• 6.9 per cent were sexually assaulted (about one in 15).
• 1.6 per cent of students were assaulted in a university setting (almost one in four of the total who were sexually assaulted).
• One in five of these assaults happened at university or residence social events.
• Women almost twice as likely as men to be harassed, and more than three times as likely to be assaulted.
• Men overwhelmingly reported as the perpetrators.
• 51 per cent of those who reported assault or harassment knew the perpetrator - most likely to be a fellow student.
• 94 per cent of those harassed and 87 per cent of those assaulted at university did not make a formal complaint or report.
• Six in 10 students said they didn't know how to formally report or complain about incidents.